Charge pumps use a switching process to provide a DC output voltage larger than its DC input voltage. In general, a charge pump will have a capacitor coupled to switches between an input and an output. During one clock half cycle, the charging half cycle, the capacitor couples in parallel to the input so as to charge up to the input voltage. During a second clock half cycle, the transfer half cycle, the charged capacitor couples in series with the input voltage so as to provide an output voltage twice the level of the input voltage. This process is illustrated in FIGS. 1a and 1b. In FIG. 1a, the capacitor 5 is arranged in parallel with the input voltage VIN to illustrate the charging half cycle. In FIG. 1b, the charged capacitor 5 is arranged in series with the input voltage to illustrate the transfer half cycle. As seen in FIG. 1b, the positive terminal of the charged capacitor 5 will thus be 2*VIN with respect to ground.
Charge pumps are used in many contexts. For example, they are used as peripheral circuits on EEPROM, flash EEPROM and other non-volatile memories to generate many of the needed operating voltages, such as programming or erase voltages, from a lower power supply voltage. A number of charge pump designs, such as conventional Dickson-type pumps, are know in the art. But given the common reliance upon charge pumps, there is an on going need for improvements in pump design, particularly with respect to trying to reduce the amount of layout area and the current consumption requirements of pumps.
FIG. 2 is a top-level block diagram of a typical charge pump arrangement. The designs described here differ from the prior art in details of how the pump section 201. As shown in FIG. 2, the pump 201 has as inputs a clock signal and a voltage Vreg and provides an output Vout. The high (Vdd) and low (ground) connections are not explicitly shown. The voltage Vreg is provided by the regulator 203, which has as inputs a reference voltage Vref from an external voltage source and the output voltage Vout. The regulator block 203 regulates the value of Vreg such that the desired value of Vout can be obtained. The pump section 201 will typically have cross-coupled elements, such at described below for the exemplary embodiments. (A charge pump is typically taken to refer to both the pump portion 201 and the regulator 203, when a regulator is included, although in some usages “charge pump” refers to just the pump section 201.)
FIG. 3 illustrates schematically a charge pump typical of the prior art. The charge pump receives an input at a voltage Vin and provides an output at a higher voltage Vout by boosting the input voltage progressively in a series of voltage multiplier stages. The voltage output is supplied to a load, for example the word line of an EPROM memory circuit. FIG. 3 also shows a feedback signal from the load to the charge pump, but without explicitly showing the regulator block. Most charge pump arrangements will typically have two such branches of one of more stage that alternately provided Vout as the clock signals alternate.
FIG. 4 schematically illustrates a voltage multiplier stage as commonly implemented in the prior art. The stage pumps charge in response to a clock signal shown as “CLK.” When the clock signal is at a low portion of the clock cycle (e.g. 0V) the driver circuit output is LOW. This means that the lower terminal of capacitor C is at 0 volts. An input supplies a voltage Vn-1 through the diode D (typically a diode connected transistor) and provides approximately Vn-1 to the upper terminal of C (ignoring the voltage drop across the diode, D). This will deposit a charge Q on the capacitor, where Q=CVn-1 When the clock signal transitions to a high state the output of the driver circuit is high, for example VCLK and so the lower terminal of C is at VCLK. This will force the upper terminal of C to be (Vn-1+ΔVCLK) since charge, Q, is conserved and C is constant. Thus the output voltage of the voltage multiplier stage is: Vn=Vn-1+ΔVCLK. The driver will drive one side of the capacitor to Vclk, however because of parasitic capacitance the other side will be increased by ΔVCLK, a voltage less than VCLK.
FIG. 5 illustrates the regulated output voltage of a typical charge pump of the prior art while maintaining a voltage, for example the programming voltage of a flash memory Vpp. When the output voltage falls below a margin of Vpp, the pump is turned on by the regulator. The pump delivers a high current to the load and drives the voltage higher than Vpp. The pump then switches off in response to a feedback signal from the load. The voltage on the load then drops due to leakage current until it reaches a predetermined voltage, lower than Vpp by a fixed amount. Then the charge pump switches on again. This cycle produces the ripples in voltage shown. If these ripples (shown by ΔV) are large they may cause problems; for the Vpp example, this can be manifested by problems such as by programming a floating gate to the wrong voltage level, or by causing a greater variation in program levels.
Because such voltage ripples may cause errors in the applications to which the charge pump is applied, it is important for its regulated output to be steady. Prior art charge pumps generally give an output with significant ripples, so that there is a need for a charge pump with ripple reduction capability.